This invention is related in general to consumer electronics systems and more specifically to a method and apparatus for content selection in a home media environment.
One increasingly common form of audio content selection in commercial environments, such as bars or restaurants, involves a “digital jukebox.” In a typical digital jukebox, song content can be accessed from a local hard disk stacked with “tracks” or songs, from an Internet server, or from both. Users typically pay one fee for songs found in the digital jukebox local hard disk or pay a higher fee if a requested song is instead found via the Internet. However, such audio content selection systems have not been made suitable for the home media environment. One reason is related to the operating costs of such systems. Another drawback is that many of these conventional systems have unpopular user input devices, such as keyboard entry systems for submitting lists of desired songs.
Another form of content selection, such as for video content selection, includes using a mobile television type device that can connect to the Internet to access audio and/or video content. However, such video content selection products are typically not well suited for accessing content that is already owned by a user because they require a user to perform a number of separate actions in order to access their personal, remotely located content. Accordingly, the user might have to pay to see a movie in a remote location with such a device when the user already owns a copy of the film in DVD form.